• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2016

This study examined the correlation between the rhythm reproduction performance and cognitive function of school-aged children. A total of 59 third grade elementary students participated in this study. An iPad-based rhythm reproduction task, the Digit Span Test (DST), the Children's Color Trails Test (CCTT), and a self-paced tapping task via a MIDI keyboard were conducted for each participant. The results demonstrated that scores at each stage of the iPad-based rhythm reproduction test showed different patterns of correlation with cognitive function test scores. This result suggests that accuracy of a simple rhythm task is correlated to speed of self-paced tapping (second). Also cognitive function may affect rhythm grouping ability. Results of this analysis for each of 20 rhythm items showed that there was a common rhythm characteristics that correlated with executive function, working memory or self-paced tapping speed. These results indicate that rhythm ability is related to, and predictive of, the level of cognitive functioning in elementary school students and can be used as an useful parameter when examining cognitive function of school-aged children in multifaceted dimensions.